"I'll Be Back in an Hour. Are You Boys Sure You Know What You're Doing?"

Thursday, July 12, 2007

My Husband's Next Do-It-Yourself Project

[Posted by reader_iam]

[Posted by reader_iam]

Just for fun, anyway--as opposed to the "honey-do" type--and only after he finishes the electric guitar he's crafting from scratch.

RepRap will make plastic, ceramic, or metal parts, and is itself made from plastic parts, so it will be able to make copies of itself. It is a three-axis robot that moves several material extruders. These extruders produce fine filaments of their working material with a paste-like consistency. If RepRap were making a plastic cone, it would use its plastic extruder to lay down a quickly-hardening 0.5mm filament of molten plastic, drawing a filled-in disc. It would then raise the plastic extrusion head and draw the next layer (a smaller filled disc) on top of the first, repeating the process until it completed the cone. To make an inverted cone it would also lay down a support material under the overhanging parts. The support would be removed when the cone was complete. Conductors can be intermixed with the plastic to form electronic circuits - in 3D even!